View full sizeMOTOYA NAKAMURA/The OregonianCarli Schultz Kruse of Beaverton holds glass materials and products, including thin rods of glass that she heats to form beads, which are shown threaded on metal rods that form holes for jewelry.

BEAVERTON -- When Carli Schultz Kruse was in grade school, her parents took her to the Corning Co. factory in upstate New York, where she was transfixed by craftsmen making miniature glass animals.

"They seemed like wizards to me," said Kruse, 38, who now works in glass herself, creating jewelry. She does so with an environmental consciousness by conserving, reusing and recycling materials wherever she can.

Kruse will demonstrate how she uses an open flame to create what artists call beads, but laypeople might see as glass jewels, during the Portland Open Studios tour Oct. 9-10 and Oct. 16-17.

She will be one of about 100 metropolitan area artists inviting guests to see how they paint, sculpt, draw, print, carve, sew, throw pots and more, said Careen Stoll, spokeswoman for the event. Visitors also may buy work directly from the artists, Stoll said.

"Glass is an art form that is accessible," Kruse said, opening the door to the 8-by-12-foot studio behind the Beaverton house where she lives with her husband, Don, and 3-year-old son, Derek.

Although she took art classes in school, Kruse said she never found a medium that captivated her. She graduated from Connecticut College in environmental science and spent 10 years as a web designer.

Her life began to change in 2003 when she took a class in fused glass, which essentially is baking pieces of glass on molds to create plates, bowls and other items. Calling it the "magpie effect," she became intrigued with the shiny, colorful material.

In 2004, she took a class in working with flame to shape thin rods of glass into brilliant, colorful beads. She knew she had found her medium.

"Glass can be a solid and you can work with it as a liquid," Kruse said. "It's the only medium I know that is made by both man and nature, and it's been used for thousands of years."

Portland Open Studios

What: About 100 artists in the metropolitan area show how they work in their studios.

"You never know what you're going to end up with," she continued. "It's like a conversation between me and the glass . . . but it doesn't always listen to what I want, exactly. We meet in the middle."

While conversing with her medium, Kruse also draws on her background in environmental studies. She feels fortunate that she can buy glass locally instead of having it shipped at a greater expenditure of energy. She sends jewelry and glass straws -- a sideline that some clients prefer over plastic or paper straws -- using boxes and packaging made from recycled materials.

She uses water from rain barrels in a finishing procedure for beads, and some water goes to her garden, too. She took up metal-smithing to complete her jewelry designs, and she uses reclaimed silver for most pieces. "There's no further mining," she said, "and sometimes I can get scraps."

View full sizeCourtesy of CARLI SCHULTZ KRUSEKruse calls this pendant, a combination of glass and copper, "Yin Yang."

She gives away pieces of glass rods on Craigslist, primarily to thrifty people still experimenting with the medium. She donated pieces of glass to a local school for children to make wind chimes and, she hopes, feel the thrill of making art and seeing beauty in glass.

"It's a bunch of small, simple, cumulative steps," she said of efforts to change a throw-away society. "It's nothing huge or innovative, but it means everybody can do it."

Meanwhile, Kruse continues to move in new directions, including showing a 4.5-inch bead, weighing 1 3/4 pounds, at the Museum of Contemporary Craft through October. It's too heavy for a pendant, of course. "It's really a big paperweight bead," Kruse said.

"It's lovely having something in a museum for others to experience, and it challenges me to create more, different, bigger," Kruse wrote recently in her blog.